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Men’s Soccer Fall 2022

Let’s go ahead and kick off the season with a post congratulating incoming freshman keeper Ryan Thompson for winning the U19 national championship and golden glove.
Woot, Woot!!! Congratulations and best wishes on continuing to kill it as a Hurricane.
 
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If you've been following the twitter over the summer, I think just about every major contributor from last year is back except for Bromstedt and Zinnhard. TU has also added a ton of players including a nice number of accomplished international players and at least 1 former MLS Academy kid (name escapes me right now). Top 5 to start the season, #1 at some point in the year. Let's go TU!!
 
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Circle August 28th. We play at Wisconsin in Madison. 1pm. We should know quick how this season should go against a big, fast, full funded, and competitive program. There's three or four games before that, but they are mostly lower division competition. Hosting Kentucky will also tell us a lot. Weird seeing FAU, Charlotte and UAB listed as conference games. We never should have allowed FIU into the conference if they dont have the money to play throwball. Its a nice trip for the boys though. You guys think UCF has no academic standards? FIU, whoa boy. I once saw a girl with a T-Shirt on that said "I think I'll just go to FIU." That sums it up.
 
So in looking through the roster, let's chat about what we expect:

GK- Alex Lopez will start and play every minute in goal this season barring injury or TU blowing someone out. He simply makes them way more dangerous in possession and teams knew how good he was with the ball at his feet this is why almost no one pressed them last year including SMU who had the talent and athleticism up front to do so

D: Fazio at 1 CB and I am guessing JUCO from Salt Lake CC will man Zinnhard's old spot. I anticipate Mitchell Cashion moving to the left side to replace Bromstedt as he seems equally capable on either side and it's much harder to find a lefty fullback than finding someone for the right side. Cooper King might be called on for the other side opposite Cashion OR maybe Tom goes out of the box and drops a guy like Will Edwards back there.

MF: Henry Sach is the 6 and maybe the best player in college soccer no one will talk about. He won't get any recognition beyond all conference because he doesn't score a ton but everyone who has watched TU knows he is what makes TU go (think Fabinho at Liverpool or Michael Bradley with USMNT before he got old, slow, and lazy). I think you will also see Protzek, Johan Juarez, Torrijos, and Jeffus in the attacking mid spots. One name absent and I was surprised to see not on the roster was Marcos Moreno who played key minutes for TU last year. At the forward spots, Meinhard and MHS and poaaibly joined by Wyatt, Thomas Wells, Schweinert. It's a pretty solid rotation.

It will be interesting to see which new players play themselves into the rotation. There's a kid from San Antonio (Javalera) and a kid from Florida (Pastor) who look like they're good players. TUs system is pretty deliberate and one of the best at keeping the ball and possessing until they find the crack. Most of TU's issues last year occurred when they got impatient. It happened against West Virginia in the middle part of the game in the tournament. It also happened against UCF in the lone regular season loss. TUs forwards are a great combo of speed and exceptional technical skill. Meinhard should be able to play himself into a Hermann Trophy consideration and at least a semi finalist/finalist.

Of course the season outlook depends on TU staying healthy. Meinhard and MHS getting hurt last year opened the door for TU to develop some depth that has returned. If they can stay healthy, a national championship is a realistic outcome.
 
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TU is ranked #11 preseason United Soccer Coaches poll. Seems low for a team returning almost every key part.
G5 bias. But puts them squarely in the drivers seat with a good showing against Wisconsin and Kentucky. Need results not draw.
 
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G5 bias. But puts them squarely in the drivers seat with a good showing against Wisconsin and Kentucky. Need results not draw.
So it looks like the AAC and CUSA men's soccer conferences have merged. This prompted me to see what was happening in the conferences b/c the Big XII doesn't sponsor men's soccer as a conference sport. So WVa and Kentucky are playing in the Sun Belt this year and UCF will join them there in 2023. That makes the Sun Belt a pretty stout conference in men's soccer (but it still won't be as good as the AAC is actually). And the AAC should approach the MAC about combining into one soccer conference. You get some good MAC programs like Akron into the conference mix.
 
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